Mai Alawamleh's Portfolio Page
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Navigation links: ETAP 623 Spring 2023 (Zhang) | Writing-to-learn in Teaching STEM for Understanding
About Me
Hello everyone! My name is Mai and I am currently a full-time MSc student in the Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology Program at SUNY Albany. I’m originally from Amman, Jordan and moved to Saratoga Springs, NY with my husband in 2022. I graduated from New York University in 2019 where I majored in Social Research and Public Policy, with a specialization in Global Education Studies.
My Topic and Purpose
This course, while applicable to all disciplines, intends to guide STEM educators into understanding and appreciating the influence of writing on learning gains and students' conceptual understanding. The course will therefore delve into the following topics:
- What is writing to learn and how does it differ from or overlap with learning to write?
- What are the benefits and potential challenges of writing-to-learn strategies?
- How can educators successfully facilitate conceptual understanding through incorporating writing-to-learn activities?
Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content
By the end of this course, participants should be able to:
- Understand the benefits of writing-to-learn strategies in the classroom and discern the difference between writing to learn and learning to write.
- Appreciate writing as a metacognitive process that cultivates deep thinking processes and encourages self-expression and ongoing reflection.
- Apply writing-to-learn activities and strategies in the classroom.
Needs Assessment
Intent: Participants will explore and acknowledge writing as an invaluable tool that enables and facilitates conceptual change, especially as a metacognitive process promoting ongoing reflection, self-expression, and deep thinking. Realizing its numerous benefits, participants will seek out various writing-to-learn strategies and activities to apply habitually and as they deem suitable to accommodate learning needs of students.
Instructional problem and relevant literature:
Paulo Freire’s (1968) ‘Banking’ concept compares teachers to bank clerks who ‘deposit’ information into students rather than tapping into students’ prior knowledge or encouraging them to understand the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of different concepts. Conceptual change defies that and advocates for the building of knowledge and meaning making, rather than mere, meek consumption where the teacher acts as the purveyor of knowledge. Hence, it does not seek to nullify students’ existing knowledge, but rather, leverage it as the cornerstone to guide them to attain deeper thought processes. This is because students’ preconceived, ingrained notions and conceptions are often incongruent with the scientific information they are presented with in school, thus necessitating re-evaluating and re-structuring of knowledge for successful conceptual change to take place (Mason, 2000).
To guide students towards conceptual change, robust research has delineated the significance of engaging students’ interests and beliefs and reflecting on them, encouraging them to pose their questions and explanations, posit their personal theories, and articulate their doubts recurrently throughout their inquiry. This is where writing comes into play, where employing adequate writing-to-learn strategies that stimulate the learner’s awareness and recognition of their unique thought processes, can be the springboard to bridge the gap (or build the ladder) between prior ideas and new conceptions.
Analysis of the Learner and Context
Learners: The participants will be pre-service and in-service educators in K-12 classrooms, specifically STEM educators. However, content of this course is versatile and can apply to all disciplines and levels of education. Participants are eager to utilize diagnostic tools and techniques to determine the students’ existing and potentially problematic, misleading knowledge, and therefore integrate and develop writing-to-learn strategies accordingly to initiate and elicit conceptual change and understanding.
Instructional Context: The instruction for this mini course will be delivered purely online via the KNILT website. Participants can therefore actively engage with the course materials and activities as per their convenience.
Goals: The primary goal is to help participants appreciate and adequately apply writing-to-learn activities and strategies. The participants will not only acknowledge the benefits and apply set strategies but will adjust or build on existing ones to develop activities tailored to their instructional practices and students’ learning needs and preferences.
Performance-Based Objectives
By the end of this course:
- The participant will demonstrate appreciation and understanding of writing-to-learn as a metacognitive process by recognizing its benefits as it pertains to fostering lifelong learning and building essential metacognitive and communication skills.
- The participant will explain the association between writing and conceptual understanding by referring to evidence-based research.
- The participant will successfully contrast writing-to-learn and learning to write activities by outlining the distinct characteristics of each writing activity.
- The participant will examine examples of writing-to-learn exercises and strategies that guide conceptual change teaching.
- The participant will apply and design writing-to-learn activities and strategies in the classroom that are concomitant with their lesson plan and desired understandings, given the evidence-based resources and tools they will be provided with throughout the mini-course.
Task and Content Analysis
Instructional Goal The mini course will allow participants to acknowledge the role of writing in STEM as part of teaching for conceptual understanding, and as an integral part of inquiry-based learning. The course consequently seeks to guide participants to analyze and apply writing-to-learn strategies in the classroom.
Essential Prerequisites Prior to taking the course, participants must:
- Possess a minimum level of computer knowledge in order to engage successfully in an online learning environment.
Supporting Prerequisites Participants should:
- Be genuinely interested and curious about writing as an invaluable tool that stimulates metacognitive processes and conceptual understanding.
- Be eager to apply writing-to-learn strategies to help students attain targeted levels of understanding.
Curriculum Map
References and Resources
Freire, P. (1968, 3rd edition 1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed, London: Penguin Books.
MASON, L., & BOSCOLO, P. (2000). Writing and conceptual change. What changes? Instructional Science, 28(3), 199–226. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23371334